MINNEAPOLIS — Most Minnesotans are settling into the reality that a snowy Christmas will be out of reach this year.
But just how often does Christmas in “the Land of 10,000 Lakes” look more like one in “the Sunshine State”?
The National Weather Service’s Twin Cities office posted a graphic to X/Twitter Wednesday that shows how the past 70 years have measured up in the Twin Cities, via 70 charming little trees.
Not including 2024, Minnesota has endured snow-free Christmases 14 of the past 70 years, or about 20% of that timeframe. The last one was in 2021.
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We’ve been getting a lot of questions recently about the brown-vs-white Christmas history in the Twin Cities. So, here’s that infographic in all it’s glory! #mnwx pic.twitter.com/lEIg1QkUCV
— NWS Twin Cities (@NWSTwinCities) December 20, 2023
Even rarer is a Christmas where there is no snow on the ground, but snow falls just in time for the big day. This’s only happened three times in the past 70 years.
Metro residents are very much used to enjoying a snow-covered Christmas Day, which has happened 75% of the time. Twenty-six of the past 70 years have had a snow depth of more than 3 feet, and 27 years have had between 1-3 inches.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently released an interactive map of the United States showing the historic probability of Christmas Day arriving with an inch or more of snow on the ground. Their data spanned 30 years, showing Minnesota, of course, as one of the states with the highest probability of having a snowy Christmas.
The southern half of the state gets one about 70% of the time, and it’s about 90% of the time up north.
NOAA’s data shows that in the past 123 years, there have been a total of 36 Christmases in Minnesota without snow or just a trace.
NOTE: The original airdate of the video attached to this article is Dec. 11, 2023.
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